


We Only Have Forever (And Forever Is Fine)

by sleep_is_good_books_are_better



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, High School AU, Hyuuga Neji/Tenten - Mentioned, Light Smut, Mentioned Uzumaki Boruto, Mentioned Uzumaki Naruto, Next Gen, No Uchiha Massacre AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Uchiha Itachi - Freeform, Uchiha Itachi/Uchiha Shisui - Implied, Uzumaki Karin - Freeform, Very very slightly, ssmonth2015
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-13
Packaged: 2018-04-09 06:38:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4337756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleep_is_good_books_are_better/pseuds/sleep_is_good_books_are_better
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because there isn't a world, there isn't a time, there isn't a place, where their hearts don't find each other. AKA, SSmonth2015</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 2 - No Filter

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2 - No Filter

As he peers at his daughter's bedroom from his post at her door, Sasuke takes a deep breath. He feels tense on this day every year, but this time, it's different. Standing there, Sasuke debates the merits of waiting another year before discarding the idea. Who knows where he'll be in a year, and, anyway, it's better Sarada gets the story from him now than wait any longer.

Still, it was never going to be an easy story to tell. 

As he tarries at the door frame, a warm hand lands on his shoulder. It's soft, deceptively so, but betrays a strength that has broken mountains and men as it turns him around, dragging his gaze to his wife. Sakura's bottle green eyes shine with understanding and support, and he wonders for the millionth time how he got so lucky as to have her love.

Unlike Naruto, she didn't throw herself at his walls like a wrecking ball until they came crumbling down. She was just there, slipping between the cracks until she became so imbedded into him until it feels like she will never come out.

He hopes she never does.

Her voice, like her hands, is deceptively soft, hiding the steel in her soul as she speaks.

"It's going to be fine, darling."

He tenses, denials ready at his teeth, and she gives him a look. A look that says, Sasuke Uchiha, I have known you since we were the same age our daughter is now, do not try to hide things from me. The look makes him smile and question his fortune in life again, and he figures today might as well be a day for honesty.

"Ah," he says quietly, "I hope so." The smile dies, and the anxiety comes back like a familiar friend that never really left.

"It will." She entreats him with her eyes to believe him, and he almost does.

Seemingly ignoring the unconvinced look in his eyes, his wife pulls him close and presses up to her toes to whisper, "Go," into the crease between his eyes. She kisses him lightly on the lips before turning him around and giving him a light push into their daughter's room. 

He takes a deep, steadying breath. He's faced the snake sannin and the rabbit goddess, but this has got to be the scariest thing he's ever done. As he sits on the side of Sarada's bed, the thought briefly crosses his mind that he's too dark, too tainted to be in this place of childhood memories and warm dreams. He hears Sakura's denial in his head as if she had said it out loud.

"Papa," Sarada begins, smiling, "are you going to tuck me in?"

She looks so excited about something that should be so mundane, and his heart once again clenches painfully at the idea of what he's missed. Somehow, he manages to nod.

"Ah. And to tell you a story."

Her excitement changes forms at the words, to that of a child excited for the learning of new things. 

"Really?" She asks. "What about?"

This makes him smile, because he thinks that the sight of her this happy is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. He reaches up, and pokes her squarely in the center of her forehead.

"I'm going to tell you a story about your Uncle Itachi."


	2. Day 3 - Carnival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 - Carnival

Sakura is always thrilled to go out with Sasuke (After all, her husband is still a deeply private person who avoids PDA like the plague), but as the sound of laughter floats back to them from ahead, she begins to suspect her husband may have had an ulterior motive. Their daughter’s shiny black hair is just visible from where they are standing. Sarada is throwing her head back as she laughs, and the metal of her glasses is catching the light of the lanterns and the glow of the fireworks. 

That’s not the main reason they’re here, though. The reason, it seems, that Sasuke was so intent on coming to the yearly festival is made clear by the boy standing next to his precious princess, looking like making her smile was an achievement worthy of the history books. Sakura thinks that how flipped their daughter and Naruto’s son are for each other is all kinds of cute, but it’s clear that Sasuke thinks very differently. 

In a way, Sakura understands. Both Sauske’s experiences, having missed so much of Sarada’s life, and simply him being a father means that he will never quite be able to see her as something that doesn’t need to be protected at all costs. Against enemy-nins and things that go bump in the night, yes, but also against foolish young boys who don’t understand how to treat something as fragile as a human heart. He understands well the dangers of such a boy; he was once one himself, long ago. 

Still, looking at Sarada and Boruto, it’s hard to discern who’s falling faster. Sarada’s smiles are open and her laughs come easy, and her eyes glow in a way that Sakura recognizes well. And Boruto, well, Boruto is pulling all the stops of a hero in a rom-com, winning her prizes and trying to make her laugh, all while grinning so widely it looks as if his whiskers will fall right off his face. 

So, yeah. It’s really cute.

But she doesn’t get many date nights with her husband (like, at all), and she’s not going to let his desire to be an overprotective neanderthal get between her and her night. Sasuke is still trying to hide the fact that most of his focus is on his daughter and her date, which makes it easy to drag him away. After all, if he fought too much, it would be obvious what he’s trying to do. Gripping his hand firmly in a way that still makes her inner twelve-year-old squeal, she pulls him up the hill to where the best spots for the fireworks are. As they sit down, he’s still tense, but when she leans against him, he opens up his arms and pulls her close. She snuggles against him, and he finally relaxes. 

No words need to be exchanged between the couple as they sit there under the stars, watching the fireworks together.


	3. I Say I Love You (But You're Not Listening)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 - The Games We Play

                “Sakura, you have to talk to him sometime, y’know.”

                The sound of her locker slamming echoes through the rapidly emptying hallway.

                “No, Naruto, I really don’t.”

                “Sakura, please! I can’t stand to have my two best friends fighting like this! Especially with the way you two-”

                The implication of how things used to be makes her carefully maintained resolve (not that there was all that much to begin with) snap. “He left! He left us! He left me! And now you expect me to go crawling back to him as if I have anything to apologize for!? I won’t! I don’t have any reason to!”

                As she finishes her tirade, guilt begins to seep in for yelling at Naruto, who is actually a really nice person when he isn’t annoying the shit out of her. Besides, she’s not even angry at him, not really, she’s mad at the blockheaded bastard he calls a best friend; a boy who, prior to his disappearance from their lives nearly two years ago, she honest to god thought might be the one. Looking back, it does seem like mostly a symptom of an overactive sophomore imagination, but given the way he acted towards her, it also seemed like he had feelings for her as well, so it wasn’t entirely delusion.

                Naruto isn’t smiling anymore; in fact, he looks really hurt, and her guilt quadruples. It’s not enough, though. Sasuke Uchiha is the reason she no longer believes in happy endings, and she won’t just go back to him as if nothing has changed. She’s better than that. She’s stronger than that.

                Still, she hates leaving it like this, so she extends an olive branch, of sorts.

                “Naruto, why are you letting him do this? Why are you letting him act like he hasn’t done anything wrong?”

                A few feet away, Naruto turns, resolve gleaming in his eyes like the hero of a fairy tale. “Become Sakura,” he says, “someone has to welcome him home.”

                With that, he turns and walks away, presumably to have lunch with Sasuke once again, leaving her standing there, feeling like the biggest piece of shit on the planet.

                Her suspicions are confirmed when she enters the lunch room to see her entire friend group clustered at a lunch table with Naruto and Sasuke. She sighs at the sight. It looks like she’ll have to sit a lot closer to Sasuke than she ever wanted to, but she’ll have to make do. After all, she doesn’t have to talk to him.

                After she gets her lunch of mystery meat and veggies that are about three years old, she slides into a seat next to Neji, who currently has Tenten on his lap. Those two are a very unexpected couple, Sakura thinks, as she watches Tenten laugh at something Ino has said and Neji smile in response to her laugh. Neji is the shade of hard ass every teacher loves and Tenten is a firecracker with almost as much optimism as Naruto and a possibly unhealthy fixation on premodern weaponry, yet, somehow, they fit together perfectly. Somehow, this turns her thoughts to her and Sasuke, and she wonders if they ever had a chance.

* * *

 

The next day, she opens her locker to a note that tumbles out to her feet. When she opens it, it’s to a single phrase written in familiar scrawl that she knows almost as well as her own, and that phrase is _I’m sorry_.

Sakura smiles.


	4. Test

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 5 - Test

                The ANBU test was infamously difficult. There were countless horror stories about the terrible things one had to go through to join the esteemed organization. Tales of pain and misery and hardship only overshadowed by the tales told by those who became members. It was said that the test was designed as such to test your sanity, as all high ranking ANBU members must be insane.

                As she dragged her bruised and battered body out of the final stage of the exam, Sakura had every reason to believe every single jab at the sanity of ANBU officers. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and all she wanted to do was to go home, take a bath, and maybe cuddle with her boyfriend before sleeping for eternity. Her body was littered with scratches, and her yin seal, while still intact, was severely depleted.

                Clapping reached her ears as she exited the compound where the test had taken place. Looking sideways at the source gave her enough of a shock to straighten her back and widen her eyes.

                “Itachi-san!”

                The highest ranking members of ANBU watched the final stage of the exams themselves as to better decide if the applicant was worthy of a position in the lauded organization. That meant, of course, that Itachi, who was a legend and well on his way to the Hokage position, had seen everything.

                “You did well, Sakura-san.”

                At his words, Sakura flushed with pride. She knew that she was a good kunoichi, and, while she had her moments, did not suffer from nearly as many self-esteem issues as she did when she was twelve. However, that didn’t matter in this case, because a compliment from _the_  Itachi Uchiha was a big deal.

                Still, she wasn’t twelve anymore, and she was a lot better at accepting compliments. She held her head high and maintained eye contact as she said thank you. Then she turned and began walking home. To her surprise, Itachi followed.

                “Since we’re going the same way anyway...” he offered as explanation. “Unless it bothers you?”

                “Oh, no, it’s fine!” She really didn’t mind at all. Itachi was kind and polite, and always... interesting to talk to, to say the least.

                Above all, however, he was ok with silence, and they walked together in silence until it was broken by Sakura’s groan as she gripped her side.

                Itachi stopped and looked at her. “Are you ok? Would you like some help?”

                Even if her pride would’ve stopped her from accepting help anyway, it was also not necessary. “No, I’m fine. Just some internal bleeding. I may have ruptured my spleen.”

                Itachi’s look of worry was almost comical. “Shouldn’t you be at the hospital?”

                “No, I’m fine now, just sore. I need a bath and some time to be fully healed.”

                He nodded, seemingly appeased.

                They walked on, quiet in the setting sun. When they arrived at Sakura’s house, the door swung open before she could open it herself, revealing her boyfriend of five years, Sasuke Uchiha.

                “Sakura.” He smiled at her, and she felt like the pressures of the day had just slipped off of her bruised shoulders. Then his gaze shifted and alighted onto his brother. “Itachi.” He looked surprised.

                “Sasuke.”

                 Sakura rolled her eyes at the two’s stoicism. “I’m going inside, because I need a bath, but, Sasuke, you mentioned you needed to talk to your brother, right?”

                 “Ah.” He nodded.

                 “Then I’ll see inside.” Leaning over, she gave Sasuke a quick peck on the lips before heading inside and leaving the brothers alone.

* * *

 

                As soon as the door shut behind Sakura, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Itachi. “What was that about?”

                The smile on Itachi’s face would be a grin on anyone else’s. “Are you jealous, little brother?”

                 “What, of you?” Sasuke scoffed. They both knew that Itachi was very devoted... to his boyfriend. “I just wanted to know if something happened with the exam.”

                “She did very well. In fact, it looks like she’ll pass.”

                “Good. Well, then...” Sasuke looked around shiftily for a brief moment before looking Itachi in the eyes. “Can you keep an eye on her? Try to make sure she won’t die? I know she can take care of herself, but...”

                Now Itachi’s smile became a full, real one. “Of course, Sasuke. I couldn’t let my future sister-in-law die, could I?”

                Sasuke froze, then turned beet red. “How did you know?”

                Itachi simply smiled and started walking home. A few feet away, he turned back and said, “Oh, a piece of advice, little brother. I would wait until tomorrow to ask; she is very tired tonight.”

                Sasuke was silent as his turned and reentered his apartment, but Itachi could read lips well enough to see the “Thank you,” Sasuke had muttered under his breath.


	5. Skin Deep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 6 - Skin Deep

                When Karin realizes that Sasuke loves Sakura and not her, she would have thought that her heart would break.

                She’s surprised when it doesn’t.

                In fact, she doesn’t feel much of anything as it becomes more and more clear that she never had a chance; as it becomes more and more clear that it’s Sakura for him, that it has always been Sakura. Her heart doesn’t break into a million pieces, she doesn’t lock herself in her room sobbing with the only two guys she’ll ever love (Ben and Jerry), and she doesn’t do something psychotic, like rip all of Sakura’s hair out.

                Part of the reason for this, she suspects, is that Sakura is that kind of genuinely kind person that is just really difficult to actually hate. Furthermore, she saved Karin’s life, so she figures she owes her. It’s with that thought that comes the realization that Karin cares more about the fact that Sakura saved her life than she cares about the fact that Sasuke doesn’t love her. And it’s with that that Karin realizes that the love for Sasuke she so loudly touted about for so long isn’t love at all, but an infatuation. And furthermore, being quite frankly obsessed with someone who was willing to stab her just for revenge isn’t, well, healthy. At all. Finally, more than anything else, she realizes that Sasuke is happy, and despite realizing that her love was nothing really, they’ve gone through too much together for her not to care about him. Besides, Sakura, who is the first real girl friend Karin has ever had, is also happy, and that’s what matters.

                And that “love” Karin had for Sasuke? Nothing more than skin deep.


	6. And One Greeted Death Like An Old Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 7 - Mortality

                If one were to take a peek into the Uchiha household at night (and by the way, do not do this. Sasuke Uchiha has nightmares and an over-protective attitude.), one would usually see Sakura holding Sasuke close, acting like a guardians against the demons the dark brings. However, on this night, it was the opposite, with Sasuke holding his wife close to his chest, taking his turn to turn away the demons of the night.

                It is clear that it wasn’t a good day at the hospital.

                Sasuke can tell the minute his wife walks through the door. Usually she’s tired, yes, especially after a late shift such as this one, but there’s still a sense of vitality that radiates off of her, a feeling of peace gained by spending a day doing one of the best things a person can do. But today, she’s just tired, and more than that, there’s an exhaustion in her eyes that goes way past the bone. She just looks defeated.

                Sasuke knows immediately what must have happened. He’s seen her act this way before and he knows what it means. She must have lost a patient at work.

                Now, Sasuke is incredibly familiar with death. There are days, even now, when he wakes up and still thinks that death is all he’ll ever be. (This thought is usually quickly banished by the arrival of Sarada, or, if not her, Sakura.) Sakura, on the other hand, is much more familiar with death than Sasuke would ever like her to be. He understands that it’s her job, and that she would never do anything else; that, as someone who fought in Fourth Great Shinobi World War there is no way that death won’t be tattooed onto her soul as much as it is onto his, but if he had his way, she’d never have to handle death again. Ever. Stopping Sakura from doing what she loves, however, has proven to be something even he can’t manage, so each and every morning she goes to work. And some nights, she comes back like this.

                All he can do is try to keep his wife, shattered by the death of someone whose name she probably barely knew, from falling apart completely.


	7. Fire Starters Get The Girls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 8 - Mission Impossible

The famous theme rings out from the TV once again, and Sasuke wonders for the millionth time how in hell he got here, watching Mission Impossible with the entire fucking gang. It’s loud, it’s chaotic, and the volume on that stupid action movie is turned up ridiculously high so as to be heard over the yelling and general screaming. Why the fuck is he here? He hates action movies.

A laugh from next to him reminds him that while he hates any movie starring Tom Cruise with a passion, he apparently adores petite, pinkette nerds, and brings him back to the shitty reality where he is still very much in love with his best friend. Dammit. It’s that annoyingly dead ended crush that led him to be here, watching a movie that he really, really, really doesn’t like.

When Sakura asked him to watch a movie with her, he was stupid and thought that maybe she was asking him to go the movie theater with him. (He had to stop himself from fist bumping at that.) At the very least, he thought she may have been asking him to watch a movie alone with her, something that affords him plenty opportunities for cuddling. The fact that this is where his mind goes first makes him wince at the sounds of his bad boy reputation screaming as it goes up in flames.

Even more amazing than that, however, is that he doesn’t mind all that much. He knows that when (not if, when, because an Uchiha always finds a way to get what they want) he’s gonna turn into a total pansy. He’ll gladly trade all the posturing in the world for a chance to walk down the hallway of their high school holding her hand. He’ll even stop wearing black if that’s what it takes to get her father’s approval and trade in his motorcycle for something a little less dangerous if it means he can drive her to school. He loves her, and yeah, sometimes that love is really scary and intense and sometimes he wishes that he could go back to a time before he thought that she was the sun and the moon and all the stars in the sky, but then she’ll do something so annoyingly beautiful like smile or tuck her hair behind her ear or do that thing where she laughs so hard she snorts and he wonders how there was ever a time when he didn’t love her.

The one problem, it seems, is getting her to see that. He’s tried subtle for so long he’s thinking she might need to get her eyes checked. He’s even had to suffer the indignity of going to his older brother for advice. (Oh, the things you do for love.) Itachi, in all of his annoying older brother-esque wisdom, had simply told Sasuke to tell her how he felt, but as has been established, she turns him into a total pussy and he’s a bit of a coward anyway, so yeah, that might as well be as impossible as whatever hijinks are going on in the movie he’s been forced to watch.

Suddenly, he’s broken from his depressing inner rant by a nudge on his side. He looks down just in time to see a pink head bury itself into his side as Sakura takes the liberty of cuddling into him. Running a hand through her soft hair, a sense of calm overcomes him. As of right now, he may not have the amount of courage necessary to risk rejection, but he will do it someday. Someday soon, because as terrifying as rejection is, the idea of losing her, who has brought light and vitality into his life in so many ways, is even more so. It may be mission impossible, but he’ll do whatever it takes not to lose her.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my take on SSmonth2015, and thank you for taking the time to read my work! As is pretty obvious, I am a little late to the party, and I will no be posting each chapter on the day of the prompt, as I will be taking the time to proof-read and edit them first. That being said, reviews are much appreciated and I hope you all enjoy my little contribution to the SS fandom.


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